Sunday, April 13, 2014

Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee...

...spoke at the Freedom Summit in New Hampshire yesterday. From an article in the Times (my emphasis):

Mr.
Paul offered up his message of making the Republican Party more
ecumenical by reaching out to Americans who feel conservatives do not
look out for them. And in doing so, he offered some blunt advice.

“The
door’s not going to open up to the African-American community, to the
Hispanic community, until we have something to offer,” he said, adding
that Republicans should care more that minorities are so overrepresented
in the prison population.

“But
your kids and grandkids aren’t perfect either” Mr. Paul said. “The
police don’t come to your neighborhoods. You get a better lawyer. These
are some injustices. We’ve got to be concerned about people who may not
be part of our group, who may not be here today.”

And I agree.

But I also have a little advice for Sen. Paul: If you really want to be the presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 2016, drop this line of thinking from your stump speech immediately. This will never appeal to today's GOP. Ask yourself, do you know any Republicans who would agree with him on this? I don't. "Minorities are overrepresented
in prison." I concur; but I'm not a Republican. And talking like that to the GOP base is a political death wish.